Investors Bored by Health Care Reform

Health insurance stock investors reacted apathetically to yet another effort by President Barack Obama to push through his health care reform plans.

Author:: Andrea Tse
Publish date:: Mar 8, 2010 2:40 PM EST

GLENSIDE, Pa. (

TheStreet

) -- Health insurance stock investors reacted rather apathetically Monday to yet another effort by President Barack Obama to push through his health care reform plans.

Obama once again on Monday reprimanded health care insurers for their latest premium hikes, but with what seemed like a more forceful tone.

None of this presented investors with new information that they could react to. "I think that investors have political fatigue here," BMO analyst Dave Shove said. According to Shove, all the known information has already been factored into the market and the health-insurance stocks.

Aetna

(AET)

stock has edged 0.3% lower to $31.30, and

WellPoint

(WLP)

has inched 0.4% lower to $62.

Cigna

(CI) - Get Report

is trading at $34.70, down 0.3%.

Humana

(HUM) - Get Report

has edged lower to $48, down 0.4%.

Other stocks that have moved lower, but not by much, include

HealthSpring

(HS)

, which is down 0.7% at $18.60.

The group of health-insurance stocks that moved somewhat more than the others have very little in common, thus one for their behavior Monday may have to do with the many conferences held by the health insurance industry each year.

"Maybe some of these companies are speaking at a conference and said something," Shove speculated.

UnitedHealth

(UNH) - Get Report

has fallen 1.9% to $33.10, while

Health Net

(HNT)

has tumbled 1.8% to $24.10.

Coventry Health Care

(CVH)

has fallen 1.4% to $24.10, while

Molina

(MOH) - Get Report